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Hempstead Supervisor-elect Laura Gillen sets transition team

Gillen’s team includes a Republican town board member, Democrat elected officials as well as business, labor and religious leaders.

Hempstead Councilwoman Dorothy Goosby threatens to remove resident Meta J. Mereday when she refuses to stop speaking during public comment at the Nov. 28 board meeting, while discussing the transition for the new town supervisor. Councilman Bruce Blakeman intervenes during the discussion. (Newsday / John Asbury)

Hempstead Town Supervisor-elect Laura Gillen has tapped a managing partner of her Uniondale law firm to head her transition team.

Gillen, a Democrat, announced members of her bipartisan transition team Monday, releasing a list that also includes Hempstead Town Board members Erin King Sweeney, a Republican, and Dorothy Goosby, the current board’s sole Democrat.

“I want to bring in a new era to the Town of Hempstead,” Gillen said in a phone interview Monday.

None of the team’s members personally donated to Gillen’s campaign, according to a review of state campaign finance records. Gillen, who is to be sworn in Jan. 2, was a commercial lawyer for Westerman Ball Ederer Miller Zucker & Sharfstein, LLP. She stepped down right after the election and she has appointed John Westerman, a managing partner and chairman of the firm’s bankruptcy, workout and restructuring department, to lead her team.

“He wants nothing in return for taking on this role,” Gillen said, noting he will serve as a volunteer in the position.

Voter registry records show Westerman, of Oyster Bay, has registered both with the Republican and Independence parties in recent years. He and Gillen have worked together for more than a dozen years.

“I think she’s honest and she’s a really hard worker and she’s smart. We can use more people like that in public service these days,” Westerman said. “When it comes to local politics, party’s not that important.”

Gillen also named Brian Muellers, a former Democratic Nassau legislator as the team’s executive director. Muellers now lives in Huntington Station and lost his bid for the Huntington Town supervisor nomination in May. Gillen also named Keith Corbett, an attorney at Uniondale firm Harris Beach PLLC and a Malverne Village trustee, as the transition’s counsel.

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Thomas Garry, chairman of the transition team for Democratic County Executive-elect Laura Curran, is a managing partner at Harris Beach.

Gillen also launched a new website, GillenTransition.com, to accept applications for town jobs.

The transition team also has tapped current and former elected officials, including Democrats Kevan Abrahams, the Nassau Minority Leader; Freeport Mayor Robert Kennedy; former Brookhaven Town Supervisor Mark Lesko; former Hempstead Village Deputy Mayor Luis Figueroa and Republican former Floral Park Mayor Thomas Tweedy.

Business, labor, religious and social issues officials are also represented on the transition team, including RXR Realty’s chief operating officer Richard Conniff, Long Island Federation of Labor President John Durso, the Miracle Christian Center’s senior pastor David Gates and LGBT Network’s president and chief executive David Kilmnick.

Gillen said Monday that her goal is to bring in staff “without regard to political affiliation.” Her transition team will reach out to Hempstead Town Attorney Joe Ra and outgoing Supervisor Anthony Santino’s administration to begin the process.

She said her first priority will be “transparency and cleaning up any corruption in Town Hall” and will begin by archiving videos of town board meetings online. The meetings are currently only live-streamed.

Hempstead Town Supervisor-elect Laura Gillen announced her transition team on Monday: